Venice Art Walk

Art Walks are calling

These days beautiful Southern California weather and warm temperatures are beckoning us outside. What better time to check out the LA art scene, especially since some great art events are just around the corner.

One is in fact happening tomorrow. The Brewery Art Walk Community opens its doors tomorrow and Sunday from 11am to 6pm. More than 100 participating artists in residence let you experience up close how they live and work. If you see some artwork you like, strike up a conversation with the artist right there and then. At the Brewery Art Walk you are basically breathing art. Anything you can remotely call art, you can find here.

Brewery Art Walk is fun, it’s hip and eclectic! There is a spring and a fall art walk and we used to visit at least one of each every year. The atmosphere is definitely a bit crazy but totally fun and groovy. Even people-watching becomes an adventure.

The famous Venice Art Walk is coming up on May 21st (12pm to 6pm). Contrary to the Brewery Art Walk it is not a free event since the proceeds of the event go to the Venice Family Clinic. Artists as well as architects are opening their homes and studios to the public and let everyone participate in their creative process. Special Studio tours are often offered and apart from fascinating art you can see some stunning homes. The impressive silent auction features famous names like Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston , Sam Durant and many more.

What’s the atmosphere here? You are walking along the cool Venice community close to the beach with all its restaurants and bars. It’s quite a different setting compared to the Brewery Art Walk which is housed in a previous industrial zone with artists’ lofts in former warehouses. And, yes, people-watching is definitely a must also here… you are in Venice Beach after all!

We started our “art walk season” with last week’s Spring Fling at Bergamot Station. Another art haven, this time in Santa Monica. The venue is easily accessible with LA metro’s Expo Line. If you arrive by car, parking can sometimes become a bit challenging.

The Spring Fling event was a collective Open House of about 30 galleries, welcoming art enthusiasts to check out what’s hot in the contemporary art world. Bergamot Station used to be one of our regular art venues to get our ‘art fix’ quite some years ago. So upon hearing of the spring event we packed up the family and left for LA.

Having not been here for a while I perceived the audience and overall vibe as quite a bit different from the exhilaratingly crazy, creative chaos at the Brewery Art Walk. While still colorful and vibrant the audience seemed to be more on the ‘sophisticated’ side and one could feel that the venue here was managed by various gallery businesses rather than an artist community. But that didn’t mean the art was less intriguing. In fact some of the galleries put on some well curated shows. Walking through Bergamot Station felt more like visiting a bunch of micro museums.

It was quite a coincidence that we stumbled upon the abstract architectural sculptures by German artist, Manfred Müller from Düsseldorf, whose work was featured in a show called “Not From Here” at the Rosegallery.

Taking in all what Bergamot Station had to offer, we particularly enjoyed the art installation “People I Saw But Never Met” by Zadok Ben-David at Shoshana Wayne Gallery. 3,000 hand-cut aluminum figures are installed on the gallery floor covered in white sand (see this post’s featured image).

One Show that really captivated us long after we had already left for home was Stephen Wilkes’ “Ellis Island- Ghosts of Freedom” at the Peter Fetterman Gallery. The photography exhibition took you on a trip through an abandoned hospital on Ellis Island that the early immigrants to this country had to pass through before they were allowed access to the ‘land of the free’. Stephen Wilkes captured the eerie atmosphere and its history so perfectly that one was literally pulled into each picture’s story.

One picture was taken from such an angle that the Statue of Liberty was visible in the mirror over a sink in a room, where some Eastern European woman might have had to stay to get her health monitored. Wilkes writes in his remarks next to the image, that he was wondering if this was perhaps the closest she could ever get to the freedom she so had longed for…

Striking, thought provoking compositions left you wanting to find out more about this part of history. Apparently Wilkes just came to visit the hospital for a one-time article assignment but it turned into a 5-year project. You can feel his fascination with his project in his exceptional capturing of the various moods and energy in every image. History comes alive under his camera and we seem to become an invisible witness of the many impactful moments that might have had occurred at that time in history.

Still in thought we solemnly made our way back to our car and were grateful for the appeasing pictures by Tamayo and Diego Rivera at the Latin American Masters Gallery before we found ourselves back on the freeway chaos of the late afternoon traffic.

Spring has arrived and with it the time of great, not-to-be-missed art walks and film fests.

The Spring Brewery Artwalk is next weekend, April 17-18, 2010 from 11am-6pm. The Brewery in downtown Los Angeles is the world’s largest arts community. Industrial buildings have been converted to art studios and live-in/work studios that host up to 300 artists and art related businesses. For the two annual artwalks , one in fall and one in spring, more than 100 artists usually open their doors for visitors to see their work and also see the artists in action.

The scene is vibrant and one can spend the whole day exploring the latest in the artscene. The artists are right there to answer any questions or to just chat with you about their work. If you fall in love with a piece of artwork, you can not only buy and take it home right there but you can get to know the artist behind the work as well. This makes for some invaluable connection to your new artwork and memories as well.

You can discover new works, find unique art gifts and millions of decoration ideas. The on-site restaurant makes it easy to take a lunch break without leaving the premises, so that you can just lean back and enjoy the scene around you.

Another famous art walk is coming up in May 2010, in Venice. It’s different from the Brewery one in the sense of being spread out over Venice itself. It’s not one big art complex. You will actually walk through the streets of Venice visiting houses and studios of artists all around the neighborhood. Plan for it. It’s exciting, fun, impressive and absolutely worth it. (Read some reviews of people who went to last year’s Venice Art Walk on Yelp ) This year’s Venice Art Walk & Auction will be on 22-23 May, 2010. One can tour the studios of about 400 artists and attend architectural tours of 15 extraordinary houses. Check their website regularly for updated information.

Once you got into the spirit of the arts with the Brewery Artwalk, plan ahead for the Newport Beach Filmfestival, which starts the following Thursday, April 22. One can enjoy cinematographic gems just blocks away from the beautiful Newport Beach ocean line. Films will be offered throughout the city and some will feel like Hollywood has changed places for a few days. Showcased will be a diverse collection of studio and independent films by both emerging and seasoned filmmakers. The festival has something for everyone, from free events to films in the categories: ‘ActionSports’, ‘Family’,’ Youth Films’ and of course the special Festival 2010 feature film selections. The Festival opens up with the movie ‘Five Star Day’ and closes with ‘Letters to Juliet’ on April 29th. Don’t miss the great series of documentaries and shorts. To download a digital program go to the Festival’s website and plan and buy your tickets ahead of time.

The LA Film Festival is next and takes place in Westwood Village from June 17-27, 2010. Now in its 16th year , it “…has grown from being held in one theater with 5,700 attendees” (official 2010 press release) to an event with more than 85,000 visitors expected this year. The Festival schedule is not yet posted. For ticketing information please phone 1-866-345-6337.

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